social media

Some 900 people indicated on Facebook that they will gather in front of former Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan's official residence on Wednesday evening, to give the terminally ill mayor a standing ovation. They want to honor Van der Laan for all he did for Amsterdam with thundering applause.

A prisoner in the Alphen aan den Rijn prison was caught recording videos and posting them online with a smartphone that was smuggled into the prison. The prison directors discovered the videos on Instagram this week, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Security and Justice confirmed to NU.nl.

Immediately after the videos were discovered, multiple cells were searched. The prison guards found four cellphones with chargers and a small amount of soft drugs. Only one of the prisoners used a smartphone for vlogging, according to the news site.

A couple from Vught found a plastic bag full of letters dating from World War II at Utrecht Central Station on Monday. Rens and Maartje Zonnenberg would like to find the owner of the letters and posted a call for information on Facebook.

According to Rens, the letters are dated between 1942 and 1944. They are written in Dutch, but the old handwriting make them difficult to read, he said to newspaper AD. The bag was found on a bench on platform 18. "There are more than 100, 150 maybe", he said.

One in four politicians in Gelderland faced aggression over the past year, according to a study I & O Research did on behalf of the Province of Gelderland. Among mayors in Gelderland municipalities, 56 percent were faced with aggression, the Gelderlander reports.

Utrecht couple Scarlet and Joyce are searching for a sperm donor with a YouTube video. They hope to find a donor that fits them well with the video, as earlier attempts to find a donor through more regular channels mostly led to weird reactions, AD reports.

The couple is very active on social media, where they share a lot about their personal lives and the daily challenges they face. Their YouTube channel Ik Vrouw Van Jou has more than 41 thousand subscribers. They therefore decided to share this call with their followers.

The Public Prosecutor demanded 40 hours of community service against a 47-year-old woman who threatened Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Facebook. The Prosecutor also asked the court in The Hague to impose mandatory treatment for the woman's psychological problems, the Telegraaf reports.

In November last year the woman commented on a Facebook post by Rutte about politician Sylvana Simmons. "If we can't hang Sylvana, then we'll hang this bastard. The main cause", she wrote. The woman later stated that she was acting on impulse and that she regrets the comment.

A Dutch-Turkish man was arrested in Turkey on suspicion of insulting president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to NU.nl. According to the charge, the man called Erdogan a "thief" and "dictator" on social media and expressed criticism of the political situation in the country.

The Enschede police posted a video on Facebook of a man under the influence of drugs having convulsions on the floor. "Luckily we were there on time", the police wrote. While the post received many positive responses, some criticized it as being disrespectful and tasteless, RTL Nieuws reports.

The post was intended as a warning that drugs can be dangerous. The man was taken to hospital by ambulance.

"It's unnecessary and has a high level of sensation", one commenter criticized. "And that by the police, who should be protecting us."

The Dutch police are finding more and more photos and videos on pedophile networks that were made by the children themselves and posted to social media, Lesley Linder of the police team combating Child Pornography and Sex Tourism said to newspaper AD.

A young tourist was inured in Amsterdam on Saturday after getting into an argument with her Airbnb host. A video of the incident shows the young woman being pushed down a flight of stairs by a man. The man, 47-years-old from Amsterdam, was arrested, a police spokesperson confirmed to the Telegraaf.

A Facebook post by Dutch broadcaster RTL Nieuws about politician Sylvana Simons looking for a new name for her multicultural political party, led to so many "negative and racist responses" that the broadcaster decided to remove the post.

The team doing the criminal investigation into the downing of flight MH17 will start spreading videos in the Ukraine in an effort to convince witnesses to come forward. The videos consist of the relatives of MH17 victims talking about their loved ones, how they are missed and their sorrow, ANP reports.

According to the police, these videos' primary intent is to again draw attention to the investigation into the disaster. "As the years pass, people can still have important information", a police spokesperson said, according to the news wire.

The lawyer of the 16-year-old boy suspected in the death of 14-year-old Savannah Dekker, is pressing slander charges. The charges involve a photo of the boy appearing on Facebook with the text: "This is Savannah's killer", AD reports.

The photo appeared on social media this weekend, and was removed soon after. According to the lawyer, the police know who posted it.

Amsterdam portrait artist Edwin van den Dikkenberg gained some international fame this weekend when his painting of former American president Barack Obama went viral online, mistakenly called Obama's official presidential portrait.

The painting was massively discussed on social media, particularly because it depicts Obama wearing a beige suit. In 2014 the president was criticized for this particular clothing choice, because it was considered not to be presidential enough.

From Tuesday KLM passengers world wide can request and receive their booking confirmation, check-in information, boarding pass and flight status on Twitter and WeChat. From now on all passengers booking a flight through the airline's website, can choose to receive their information via the two social media platforms, the airline announced, according to NU.nl.

The service launches today and will become more and more widely available in the coming weeks.

Savannah Dekker knew the 16-year-old boy arrested in connection with her death through social media, Bunschoten mayor Melis van de Groep said on Radio 1 Journaal. The police confirmed that both Savannah and Romy Nieuwburg were killed in crimes, though so far the cases seem to be unrelated, according to the news program.

People on social media identified the man who was killed in a shooting in Rotterdam on Sunday night as screen name Parsa010, AD reports. The police haven't confirmed his identity yet, but there are many posts about his death on Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms.

A Dutch police officer is melting hearts on social media with a photo of him feeding a baby at an accident scene in Tilburg. No one was injured in the accident.

The officer and his colleagues responded to an accident on the N269 near Tilburg on Wednesday - a caravan broke loose and crashed into a tree. Nobody was injured, but the driver faced another problem. She had two hungry babies in the car, and they would be stuck at the scene for a while.

Father Mario Haazen was sentenced to 10 months in prison for assaulting a 47-year-old former psychiatric patient after finding out he was trying to lure Haazen's 14-year-old daughter into a sexual relationship on social media. The court acquitted Haazen of attempted murder, AD reports.

A family heirloom accidentally sold on a King's Day flea market, has been tracked down. The painting is now back with its original owner, NOS reports.

An 11-year-old girl from Blokker sold the painting at a Hoorn flea market with her father for only 5 euros. She had no idea that the painting was precious to her mother. And the father did not know his ex still wanted it, as had been in his attic for some time.

The Dutch public is more supportive of the monarchy this year. 70 percent of Dutch now say they are behind monarchy, compared to a low point of 65 percent last year, according to NOS' annual King's Day Survey performed by Ipsos. The increased support for the monarchy coincides with a slight increase in trust in King Willem-Alexander, NOS reports.

An Amsterdam couple that filed a lawsuit to remove a 'stumbling stone' - a memorial stone placed in memory of specific Jews deported during World War II - from in front of their home, dropped their objections after facing a storm of criticism on social media, the Volkskrant reports.

Anne Fleur Dekker (22), an activist and member of the GroenLinks faction in Hilversum, went into hiding because she is being threatened by supporters of PVV leader Geert Wilders and FvD leader Thierry Baudet, she said to Joop.nl. The threats started after she published a column in which she called Baudet a Wilders in sheep's clothing, and got worse after Wilders shared an article that claims Dekker called for people to throw stones at Wilders, NOS reports.